Summer assessment and stuff

Summer break is half over--or more than half when you consider that my administrative duties start up August 1. I hate to bring out the A word in the middle of the summer, but it's time to assess how I'm doing on summer projects.

On the home front I'm doing fine: I've been keeping up with the garden, taking the dog for long walks, and helping my daughter and son-in-law move into their new house. I've cleaned out one closet but haven't touched the other two--and frankly, I'm not terribly motivated. Those closets are stuffed with stuff I stuffed in there because I didn't know what else to do with it, and I don't know what to do with it now any more than I did when I stuffed it in there. So the closet-cleaning project has moved to the back burner, where it may remain simmering for some time.

On the writing front, I'm doing pretty well on the plan to revise and submit one article each week, although I gave myself time off for helping the young folks move. I now have five articles in the hands of various editors and another ready to send to a publication that doesn't accept submissions during the month of July. I suspect that one of the articles wasn't quite ready for prime time, but I feel pretty good about the rest. Who knows when I'll hear anything from all those editors?

On the academic front, I've done some informal fiddling with fall syllabi (two classes I've never taught before!) but they're far from completion. They're not even in the same time zone as completion. But that's to be expected this time of year; I expect to focus on syllabi more intently in August when I'll have to be in my office nearly every day to fulfill administrative duties (which I've worked on steadily all summer long so I won't be overwhelmed in August).

Over all, I'd give myself a solid B+ for my my summer midterm grade. The problem, though, is that July is the month of enervating ennui, when heat and humidity sap my motivation. I need to keep my momentum going or that B+ grade will drop like a safe out of the sky in a Warner Brothers cartoon, leaving me squashed. I need a pep rally and a cheerleading squad to pump me up.

I would write some cheers myself, but I can't find a rhyme for "closets."